Ukraine is deploying 120,000 troops to the line of contact in Donbass, Russia's Permanent Representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzya said at a UN Security Council meeting discussing the situation around Ukraine, Tuesday (22/2).
"While fomenting unfounded panic around Russia's supposed imminent invasion of Ukraine, our Western counterparts are shamelessly pumping the country with weapons," he was quoted as saying by TASS.
"Sending instructors there and really pushing Ukraine, which has already deployed 120,000 troops to the line of contact, to carry out armed provocations against Donbass," Nebenzya said.
According to Nebenzya, "the bubble that was inflated by the West and Ukraine must burst". "Over the last weekend, the Ukrainian military intensified its bombardment of residential areas in the LPR and the DPR (Donetsk People's Republic and Lugansk People's Republic)," he said.
Citing the latest data, Nebenzya revealed, up to 1,600 artillery shells and mortar rounds were fired into areas in Donetsk and Lugansk, killing civilians.
"Several groups of saboteurs infiltrated the LPR and the DPR and blew up or tried to blow up important infrastructure facilities," he said. "Some Russian communities located near the border are also under threat."
"It has become clear that Donbass is on the threshold of a new Ukrainian military adventure," Nebenzya added. "We can't let that happen," he stressed.
A witness told Reuters he saw rows of military vehicles including tanks early Tuesday on the outskirts of Donetsk, the capital of one of two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine.
Reuters reporters saw about five tanks in one column on the outskirts of Donetsk and two in another part of the city.
No badge was seen, but the appearance of the tanks came hours after President Vladimir Putin signed a friendship treaty with the two separatist regions and ordered Russian troops to deploy peacekeeping operations.
